Mumbai, Feb. 11: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) appears to have decided not to boycott the Justice AP Shah committee, appointed by the oil ministry to decide the compensation that the company might have to pay to ONGC for the migration of gas from the PSU's block to its fields.
Such a decision would mark a sharp turnaround in RIL's stand. The company had earlier refused to recognise the Shah panel's right to decide the compensation amount. It had said such disputes could only be decided through arbitration.
The source of the dispute can be traced back to a case filed by ONGC in the Delhi high court charging RIL of stealing its gas while drilling in the KG-D6 field.
ONGC had claimed that four wells drilled by RIL in the KG-D6 block were within a few hundred metres of the PSU's gasfields and it feared that the two companies might be sharing the same reservoir.
The Mukesh Ambani-owned company had denied the charge but an independent US-based consultant DeGolyer and MacNaughton had established that 11.12 billion cubic metres of natural gas, worth over Rs 11,000 crore, had migrated from ONGC's idle fields to the adjoining KG-D6 block.
RIL's move comes weeks after BP, its 30 per cent partner in a few gas blocks, said it would co-operate with the Shah panel.
Last month, the committee had sought comments from the parties involved in the case, including ONGC, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the oil ministry and BP.
In a letter to the panel on December 31, RIL had said the issue ought to be decided by the government.
ONGC chairman and managing director Dinesh K. Sarraf told reporters in the capital that RIL had began to attend the committee's meetings.
"At the first meeting of the Shah committee on December 31, Reliance and Niko said they would not co-operate. However at the last meeting on February 9, they were present," Sarraf said.
A spokesperson for RIL did not respond when reached for comments.